Like many of her fellow students at the University of Chicago, Darrian Robinson texts frequently, is in a sorority and likes to spend her free time binge-watching popular TV shows, like "Orange Is the New Black" and "New Girl."

But among the accomplishments that set her apart is a significant one: Robinson is currently the highest-rated female African-American chess player in the U.S., according to the U.S. Chess Federation, and at press time was ranked 1,707 overall of 54,243 players.

Robinson, 19, enters her junior year this fall, working toward a Bachelor of Arts in public policy studies. Last summer, she was a White House intern in the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. This summer, she's at home in Brooklyn, spending weekends at the Marshall Chess Club in Manhattan. She also plans to take a class at the London School of Economics before returning to school.

She has traveled the world to compete, including for tournaments in Georgia, Turkey and Ecuador. What follows is an edited transcript of our chat.

Q: What prompted you to start playing chess?

A: I was 9 years old and didn't have anything else to do, so I joined my elementary school's chess club. I tried playing the recorder, and I hated that, and I tried fencing but didn't make the team. I liked chess because it was an alternative to doing nothing. But I really began to like it when I started to get better than everyone else in my school.

Q: How often do you practice?

A: Now that I'm in college, I don't practice as much as I should. But when I was younger, I'd practice a lot. I went to a specialized middle school that was very big on chess. I would practice two hours each day in school, then I'd practice with my coach once a week between an hour and two hours. Every weekend I'd play.

Q: At competitions, either now or when you were younger, do you tend to be outnumbered by men?

A: Even now, especially. I didn't notice it when I was younger, but I notice it now. I can go through several tournaments without ever playing a woman.

Q: Does that mess with your psyche?

A: I guess because I'm so used to it, it seems normal. But if you look back and actually consider what happened — that you only played men — you realize it's not normal at all. In the moment, you don't even notice because everyone's just there to play chess.

Q: What do you do to relax?

A: I like reading books everyone has read. I do that mostly so I can have great conversations with new people. You know, there are those top 20 books that everyone should read, so I'm working my way through the list.

Q:What are you reading right now?

A: "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama. I've heard a lot of people, including my mother, say that this is a book you should read. I worked at the White House, and I think it will help me learn more about the president.

Q: How do you think playing chess has benefited you?

A: I think being the highest-rated African-American female chess player in the U.S. has helped me stand out from the crowd. It's something most people don't have under their belts. It helped me get into college. I remember the person who read my application to the University of Chicago came up to me during the meet-and-greet for incoming first-year students, and he remembered me immediately and that I played chess competitively.

Q: Would you call chess a sport or a game?

A: I remember my old chess coach once told me that the only reason chess isn't a sport is because you don't have to be drug tested to play it. For the Olympiad, which is like the Olympics for chess — see it's not even called the "Olympics" — they don't drug test the players. You're not going to have a chess player doing steroids. If they do, it won't help them.

Q: Do you think any mind-altering substances could be advantageous?

A: No. Drugs mess with your brain in a way that you're not able to see things precisely. In chess, you have to analyze everything that's happening on the board. Drugs only prohibit your ability to think. Chess players can't do anything to make themselves better except to cheat or to study.

Q: How can someone cheat in chess?

A: First of all, I doubt anyone would cheat in chess. Especially when you're not playing for much money. But if someone really wanted to, they could go to another room, look at this online program called ChessBase, input their position and the computer can tell them the best move to make next. I feel like 99 percent of chess players don't play for money. They play because they want to compete. You'd probably have more utility doing something else illegal than cheating in chess.

Q: Do you listen to music to pump yourself up before a match?

A: I actually hate listening to music beforehand, especially catchy music because it gets stuck in your head and then you're sitting there for five hours repeating, "We're going down … I'm yelling timber."

Q: How do you recover from a tournament loss? Do you just brush it off?

A: Definitely. My rating hovers around 2100 mostly (which qualifies her as a USCF candidate master; she aspires to become a master, requiring a rating of 2200). With the rating system, if you lose to someone lower rated than you, depending on how much lower rated, then you'll lose some points. If you beat someone higher rated than you, depending on how much higher they are, then you'll gain points. Chess isn't about winning first place in tournaments. It's about beating individuals who are better than you.

Q: Have you ever had a loss that you couldn't get over?

A: I remember I used to cry a lot every single time I lost.

Q: At what age did that stop?

A: I still get incredibly sad if I lose in a bad way.

Q: What's a bad way to lose?

A: When you do something really stupid that you know you shouldn't have done. It's so easy to see your mistakes once they've already happened. And when I notice a mistake the moment after I make it, my heart drops.

Q: Do you think chess has caused you to develop special cognitive or problem-solving skills?

A: Everyone says that's what's supposed to happen. Chess players are supposed to be smart, amazing at math, good at being nerdy, I guess. I can't see it, but maybe? I feel like there are a lot of stereotypes about what should happen when you're good at something. I'm not sure how true those are. Maybe I'm just not noticing it, but I'm sure playing chess helps me in some ways. I mean, I'm at U. Chicago. I'm doing pretty well.

Q: What do you hope to do after you graduate?

A: Actually, I have no idea. I think there are a lot of things to do as a person interested in politics and policy. I could go work for the government, or I could go to law school. One of my biggest dreams is to run for office. I'm finding out now what I am.